Man Arrested for Hacking Government Websites

The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point was among the victims of a computer hacker who was arrested in California on Thursday.

According to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, Billy Ribeiro Anderson 41, of Torrance, Cal., used special computer skills and knowledge to hack important U.S. military and government Web sites and more than 11,000 other Web sites around the world. The New York City Comptroller's Office also was among the victims.

He is accused of obtaining unauthorized access to the Web sites and defacing them. The U.S. Attorney's Office said in its release that Web site defacement can interrupt an organization's operation and damage its credibility.

Anderson, also known as Anderson Albuquerque and AlfabetoVirtual, was arrested at his home on Thursday morning.

Anderson was charged with two counts of computer fraud for causing damage to a protected computer, for which the maximum sentence if convicted is 10 years in prison for each count, and one count of computer fraud for unauthorized access to a U.S. government computer, for which the maximum sentence if convicted is one year in prison.

Anderson is being held pending an appearance in federal court in Los Angeles.